Monday, March 03, 2014

Lots of hills and trees where I live, so this snow has me chilling at home today. I honestly don't feel like digging my way out of it. Old Man Winter I give up; you win this year.

Anyway, I caught just a little of the Oscars last night, and it was nice to see the beautiful and classy Lupita Nyongo win the statue for best supporting actress for her acting in Twelve Years A Slave. (Shout out to my man John Ridley for winning a statue for that movie as well.) Maybe "the times they are a changing."

I am still trying to figure why these very wealthy people get free clothes from very expensive designers, and gift bags with over $80,000.00 worth of goodies.

Anyway, enough about fun and games in Tinseltown , there are serious things happening in other parts of the world. Vladimir Putin is still flexing his muscle in the Ukraine region and, so far, America and her allies in Europe are still trying to figure out what to do with Russia's version of Ronnie Reagan.

I know that John Kerry says that "all options are on the table", but the White House knows that realistically economic sanctions and kicking Mother Russia out of the G8-- which would really piss off Vladi-- is the only way to go. I like that idea. Go after Russian money and try to get European and American banks to cut off the pipeline to all that money from the uber rich Russian oligarchs.
Also, get more Europeans involved and engaged. It's their corner of the world, and they better get their butts in gear to try and protect it. Vladi might be trying to get at Poland next.

Of course the right-wingnuts in Washington, as is to be expected, have all come out to condemn the president and call him weak. They claim that Putin has been playing chess while Obama has been "playing marbles."

The thing is, though, he is also their president, and America is involved in a very complicated and nuanced foreign crisis in a very volatile part of the world. So hearing senators attack a sitting president during this time was quite stunning to me. The only people whose "eyes are rolling" are those of us who see the right-wingnuts in this country for the lunatics that they really are.

Still, given the type of people we are dealing with, we shouldn't be surprised. They should understand, though, that their language only emboldens people like Vladimir Putin and weakens the perception of America in the world.

People like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio also seem to conveniently forget that W was in the same position as it relates to Putin in 2008 when he invaded Georgia.

But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of the latest right- wing talking points.

“I am deeply concerned that Russia’s ongoing military intervention in Crimea may soon expand to eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, President Obama said that Russia would face ‘costs’ if it intervened militarily in Ukraine. It is now essential for the President to articulate exactly what those costs will be and to take steps urgently to impose them."

McCain and those of his ilk are hoping that he tries to "impose" war, and the rest of us understand that when you deal with a madman, you have to tread very carefully.

"Still, given the type of people we are dealing with, we shouldn't be surprised. They should understand, though, that their language only emboldens people like Vladimir Putin and weakens the perception of America in the world."

What language, Field? What are these "right-wingnuts" saying exactly to embolden Putin?

It's not like they are craven Democrats. Have they done anything like this, as told by Robert Gates:

"Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying."

We may consider him our President, but he doesn't:

"I think it’s fair to say that that helped to create the Tea Baggers"

Barack Obama, 2009

"We're going to punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us"

Barack Obama, 2010

Nobody expects Obama to start World War III over the Ukraine. But our country's enemies obviously sense an opportunity to advance during his administration. It' five years of feckless and weak foreign policy that has weakened the perception of America in the world.

Realistically, the only thing we can about the situation in Ukraine is sit on the sidelines and watch it play out. We have zero economic leverage over Russia and Putin doesn't give a rat's patoot about the G8.

Besides, if you take a hard look at Ukraine, you'll see a political class there that is remarkably adept at switching sides at the drop of a coin. The demagogues who are hating the Russians today could just as easily be hating the EU tomorrow. Yulia Tymoshenko has been on both sides in the various internal disputes, and she's not an anomaly. The smartest thing the U.S. can do is nothing.

"I am still trying to figure why these very wealthy people get free clothes from very expensive designers, and gift bags with over $80,000.00 worth of goodies."

There's an easy explanation: Someone besides the celebrities wants to make money.

In the case of the clothing designers, it's about marketing. Each designer is getting free advertising by having a celeb wear his/her dress.

In the case of the TV network, the more people watch the Oscars, the more they earn. And high viewership of the Oscars is heavily based on getting celebrities to show up. The $80k "goody bag" is a way to get them to show up -- particularly the celebs not in contention for awards.

Of course, it strikes plenty of people as unfair that already overpaid celebs are paid still more for an evening in which they're not doing any real work. But then, fairness has little to do with our warped economic system.

"I am still trying to figure why these very wealthy people get free clothes from very expensive designers, and gift bags with over $80,000.00 worth of goodies."

Field, it's a tradition to offer generous gifts to the wealthy at Academy Award time. Let me repeat: "It's traditional to do so."

In our industry, the entertainment/movie industry, you don't offer bs cheap gifts, esp during the time of Awards....it cheapens everything. But you are outside the industry and wouldn't understand much of anything that happens.

I bet you don't even know actors, directors, etc...have the biggest egos on the planet?

Do me a favor, save your criticisms about our industry for YOUR OWN PROFESSION.

"Vladimir Putin is still flexing his muscle in the Ukraine region and, so far, America and her allies in Europe are still trying to figure out what to do with Russia's version of Ronnie Reagan."

Putin's quite a bit worse than Reagan. Reagan was mostly hot air, talking tough about fighting commies while the only actual fighting he ordered was the publicity stunt conquest of mighty, fearsome Grenada, lol. (Of course, there was also his brilliant decision to arm al Qaeda -- erm, I mean the mujahedeen -- in Afghanistan, and his illegal and pointless support of the Contras in Nicaragua.)

But I guess the comparison is apt to the extent that Putin wants to timewarp back to the Reagan era, before Russia was forced to give up all its former colonies.

The real question is why the Russian people are willing to go along with this nonsense. Their country has enough internal problems to resolve without wasting resources trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union.

"Your logic here appears to be that Russian territory is whatever Russia says it is,"----

All of Georgia was part of Russia.

Russia ceded independence to Georgia, but kept South Ossetia.

Russia never ceded South Ossetia.

Georgia invaded South Ossetia, which was a really bad idea.

Got it?

Probably not. Try this:

If we granted independence to Alaska, but kept the Kenai peninsula, but later Alaska decide to invade Kenai, and we defended it by chasing the Alaskans back to Anchorage, we would not be "invading Alaska".

Are liberals stupid, or are their heads just so full of nonsense that there's no room for basic facts?

Over the last few months leading up to and during the Sochi Games we had the privilege of hearing conservatives gush about Putin's masculinity and his leadership skills, as evidenced by his bare-breasted horse riding, vicious anti-gay campaign and for having musicians who criticize him beaten and arrested.

Conservatives love a strong-man dictator. They crave when a powerful man tells them what to do it makes them all hot and bothered. Vladimir Putin, just like Dick Cheney, is exerting his will upon the world and they swoon over him.

Right. We're not the ones chanting "O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma" and cheering on a President who enforces only those laws he agrees with, makes up new laws on the fly, and rules with his pen rather than dealing with Congress as mandated by the Constitution.

No, that's not accurate. When Georgia became independent, South Ossetia went with it.

Soon after, the residents of South Ossetia started fighting with the Georgian government over policy disputes. The Georgian government foolishly allowed the Russians in as a "peacemaker" and they effectively ended up annexing the territory.

Literally days before deciding to seize Crimea (and only they know what else comes next), Obama's Defense Secretary proposed a Pollyannaish defense budget that would bring US army strength down to its lowest level since 1940. Not 1941, but 1940. Do you really think that had no impact on Putin's calculations of American might and resolve. Face it, right now we are looking at a faceoff between former "community organizer" Obama and an ex KGB man Putin. Obama is in over his head.

A few days into a complex and dangerous situation and conservatives want a nice and neat resolution. That's why Reagan was their hero, they can't handle nuance and complexity. Commies bad! That's about the level of foreign policy understanding but it makes sense seeing that their support comes from the lowest levels of intellect and educational attainment. John McCain is their poster boy because he finished at the bottom of his Naval Academy graduating class but since his daddy was a Navy big shot he used AA to get privilege. This is who they are, just like in the healthcare debate, no solutions just bitch about the president's plan. Sad this is where we are.

The less Obama does, the better. Putin has over-reached himself - give him enough rope and he will hang himself. His action will lead to greater isolation for his nation, and will cause the EU to look somewhere else for their carbon fuel needs. Today the Rouble has collapsed and billions of dollars have been wiped off the value of Russian companies, this has been a massive own-goal by Putin. Putin does not want to annex the Crimea in the long term, they want a more federal structure for the new Ukraine with greater self-reliance for its more Russia-friendly regions, but this is a shockingly ham-fisted way of achieving that goal.

There is very little that Putin can do, he doesn't have the military power to take on a NATO nation, and unlike Russia the USA has no strategic interest in the Ukraine. Even John McCain says that a military solution is not an option.

Its a good thing McWarHawk ,and the others didnt get control of the presidency. America should have nothing to do with this situation. You cant send in the troops for every act of aggression, and you certainly cant police the World even though the GOP would have you believe otherwise.

Anon 2:32 here... Yeah take a look at the article. Vile stuff. People are roasting him right now on twitter and rightfully so. I've known about the article for a while and really want to weigh in but I'm on the come up in the that industry... so for now I have to keep my mouth shut.

"Actually Conservatives really are incapable of nuanced sophisticated thinking, that's not just my opinion there has been scientific research that demonstrates that."

Agreed.

"Liberals are doing to science what they have already done to art and education."

What? Making it better? It ain't libs who are trying to insert creationism isnto science under the guise of "teaching the controversy". That's you guys.

"Your cartoon view of the world, including conservatives, serves to shield you from the inconvenient fact that you are almost always wrong."

Romney in a landslide. PC keeps his handle and stands by his posts unlike you trolls who make up new names so you can't be held responsible when you are inevitably proven wrong. As you say, citation please. Bet PC has a better record of being accurate than any of you trolls.

Filed, view the link above and look closely at the roles that each Black actor won the statue for and tell me if times are changing...seems to me that Hollywood has its mind set on what images they want Black Folks to represent. smh

PilotX:Freeing Slaves from the republican plantation since the 70's said...

"Liberals are doing to science what they have already done to art and education."

What? Making it better?----

Modern art is completely meaningless to anyone outside the narrow, insular community who produces it. The ascetic component has approached zero as the political component has become everything.

Likewise, education has devolved into indoctrination designed to stamp the proper political views into heads of children while depriving them of the facts and context that would allow them to figure out what a hostile elite is doing to them.

Now science has been co-opted by its government funders to produce theories that justify ever increasing control by that same elite.

"Now science has been co-opted by its government funders to produce theories that justify ever increasing control by that same elite."

Says who? You?

"Modern art is completely meaningless to anyone outside the narrow, insular community who produces it. The ascetic component has approached zero as the political component has become everything."

As opposed to when?

"Likewise, education has devolved into indoctrination designed to stamp the proper political views into heads of children while depriving them of the facts and context that would allow them to figure out what a hostile elite is doing to them."

As always. You just want conservative indoctrination such as what's happening in Texas. It's ok when it's your side right?

Two things stand out to me in this Ukraine situation. 1. Putin would have made this move no matter who occupied the WH. 2. Too many Americans, especially those on the right, think our opinion carries weight on other nations. This doesn't have anything to do with us. I know some want to use this to say the biracial guy in the WH is weak but your boy in the Kremlin cares about what Marco Rubio thinks as much as he does his shoe shine boy.

But you know what? Creationism is not taught in public schools. There are a minority of districts where some parents push for religious beliefs as fact in public schools, but nowhere does it actually occur.

On the other hand, liberalism does control the entire school curriculum provided to kids in public school. Every subject has been or is being politicized. Local control is being stamped out, now by "Common Core" boilerplate being imposed by the Federal government.

Schools should be where our children learn the skills and knowledge that help them build their lives, not institutions of social engineering.

Lizzy Graham's got the vapors over the Russians grabbing the Crimea That's a good-enough reason on it's own to stay the fuck out of it while Putin finishes his greater-Russia-anshluss. John-boy's boy-toy is reliably wrong about literally everything. A better reason is that Ukraine's better off anyway without the Crimea &~rustbelt-East where all the ethnic Russians are. Russia will be stuck with yet another Muslim insurgancy among it's restive new minorities and lose it's cultural &~economic contiguity and consanguinity with Europe. Russians have gotten pretty comfortable in the last 15 years on Western investment. That's over now. What's left of Kiev-governed Ukraine will be an EU & Nato member in 2 years and Russia will have to look to an East that dismisses as anything but a resource extraction zone.

Make no mistake: this is a disaster for Russia and a blessing in disguise for Ukraine.

"Local control is being stamped out, now by "Common Core"boilerplate being imposed by the Federal government."

There should be a standard level of learning so that all students will be able to compete equally. Of course if some schools want to go above and beyond the minimal standards. There have to be standards. I'm not for one size fits all learning but we do need to ensure all of our students is learning.

"There are a minority of districts where some parents push for religious beliefs as fact in public schools, but nowhere does it actually occur."

Sort of kind of but yes it is happening. But is is only in conservative districts where biology is being challenged. Search the controversy about Texas school books. conservatives are pushing their agenda hard. Stop being a blind partisan.

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